Winemaker Notes
La Caña Navia recovers the traditional methods of elaborating Albariño, before the incorporation of stainless steel tanks, when the wines were fermented and aged in large chestnut wood barrels on the lees. These were the wines that Jorge Ordóñez first discovered in Rias Baixas when he became the first person to export this variety.
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
A step up in price, the 2018 La Caña Navia (100% Albariño) offers a deeper, more mineral-laced style in its honeyed green apple, crushed stone, petrol, and minty herb aromas and flavors. With almost a kiss of Riesling-like minerality and petrol, it's medium-bodied, has a supple, layered textured, beautiful acidity, and a great, clean, dry finish. It will continue to evolve gracefully for another decade. Best After 2022
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
There are intense notes of pineapple in the 2018 Navia, intermixed with notes of spices and herbs. It fermented and matured in 500- and 600-liter oak barrels with the lees and bâtonnage for 10 months. It has both concentration and freshness, ripe flavors and a long, dry finish with a marine twist. 10,650 bottles produced. It was bottled in September 2019.
-
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 La Caña Navia Rías Baíxas Albariño is vivid, bright, and satisfying. TASTING NOTES: This wine exhibits attractive aromas and flavors of apple and subtle earth notes. Enjoy it with grilled white fish wrapped in corn tortillas. (Tasted: January 31, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
Jorge Ordóñez was the first person to introduce Albariño to the United States in 1991. Told he would never sell more than 100 cases of Albariño in New York City, he persevered, and now owns a winery in the Valle of Salnés, the best appellation of D.O. Rias Baixas.
When Jorge first traveled to Rías Baixas, the D.O. did not officially exist. What he found was a rich culture of family viticulture and winemaking. Most families had small plots of Albariño planted on pergolas built with posts taken from the mother rock – granite. Most of this Albariño was fermented and aged on the lees in large chestnut foudres.
Named for the straw-like cañas (reeds or canes) that line the shores of the Atlantic inlets that carve into the granite coast of Galicia, the winery’s philosophy is to produce a traditional, authentic, and serious Albariño, in the style of the artisan wines that Ordóñez discovered when he first arrived in the appellation in 1991.
Bright and aromatic with distinctive floral and fruity characteristics, Albariño has enjoyed a surge in popularity and an increase in plantings over the last couple of decades. Thick skins allow it to withstand the humid conditions of its homeland, Rías Baixas, Spain, free of malady, and produce a weighty but fresh white. Somm Secret—Albariño claims dual citizenship in Spain and Portugal. Under the name Alvarinho, it thrives in Portugal’s northwestern Vinho Verde region, which predictably, borders part of Spain’s Rías Baixas.
Named after the rías, or estuarine inlets, that flow as far as 20 miles inland, Rías Baixas is an Atlantic coastal region with a cool and wet maritime climate. The entire region claims soil based on granite bedrock, but the inlets create five subregions of slightly different growing environments for its prized white grape, Albariño.
Val do Salnés on the west coast is said to be the birthplace of Albariño; it is the coolest and wettest of all of the regions. Having been named as the original subregion, today it has the most area under vine and largest number of wineries.
Ribeira do Ulla in the north and inland along the Ulla River is the newest to be included. It is actually the birthplace of the Padrón pepper!
Soutomaior is the smallest region and is tucked up in the hills at the end of the inlet called Ria de Vigo. Its soils are light and sandy over granite.
O Rosal and Condado do Tea are the farthest south in Rías Baixas and their vineyards actually cover the northern slopes of the Miño River, facing the Vinho Verde region in Portugal on its southern bank.
Albariño gives this region its fame and covers 90% of the area under vine. Caiño blanco, Treixadura and Loureira as well as occasionally Torrontés and Godello are permitted in small amounts in blends with Albariño. Red grapes are not very popular but Mencía, Espadeiro and Caiño Tinto are permitted and grown.